The Love of a Sister
by K-K-Girl
Summary: Chihiro goes back to the Spirit World (quite by accident) and there's something up with her sister......... Haku is now more... different?


A/N: mm-kay, many too many ficlets I have! You know, I have been saying that a lot lately...  
  
Disclaimer: don't own. I DO NOT own spirited away. I DO, however, own the little one(s) Karasuko[raven/crow] and Hatoko[dove/pigeon]. This applies to all future chapters.  
  
Summery: three/four years after the movie, Chihiro comes back to the Spirit World after two little ones, who ran away. but the Spirit World has changed, and so has Haku...  
  
Summery change pending.  
  
Genre: heck, I dunno!  
  
Rating: ... um? ...  
  
Length: dunno. not yet, anyway.  
  
POV Three  
  
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'Funny' thought Chihiro one almost-dark evening (of babysitting her siblings), staring (not for the first time) out her bedroom window to the forest, where the tunnel was, and all of them. But her eyes traveled down to the back yard, and she stood up, walking to her window, which she opened and leaned out of. 'I don't remember letting her outside...'  
  
"Hatoko! What are you doing?"  
  
A three-year-old child looked up at her house, window, sister, pausing momentarily from where she was soaking some couch cushions in a mud puddle.  
  
"Ko-ni-chi-wa, nee-chan!" she cried, a little girl; Hatoko. Her twin brother, Karasuko, looked up from where he was on Chihiro's bed - she had been reading to him.  
  
"Are those Okaasan's new cushions? Ai, you! HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Chihiro yelped and almost fell as she leaned out, shaking a fist at her sister. Hatoko, having realized that her big sis had realized her new decorations- for-the-house plan, took off running. She weren't very fast, but fast enough.  
  
"GET BACK HERE YOU COWARD!" Chihiro roared after her, then threw herself back in, slamming her window shut. "Stay here and be a good boy, Karasuko," she said as she shot out of her bedroom, downstairs, and out the front door even without her coat and shoes. It wasn't terribly too long when she caught up to the little girl, being head of the track team, and after some major screaming at each other, she was lugging her back.  
  
Of course Hatoko kicked and screamed and cried; all in all creating a big scene that neighbors could hear - not see, since they were in the back yard and the last house of the row. Chihiro dragged her inside, pulled off her shoes, and then lugged her upstairs. There, she locked her in the bathroom, and went to her bedroom to get a change of socks. Hatoko's twin brother looked up at her from where he had been sitting obediently, and she smiled at him as she exchanged her ruined blue socks for some warm dry pink ones.  
  
"You're such a good boy, Karasuko," she said warmly. He gave her a little smile; just a twitch of the lips.  
  
"I'm giving your sister a bath. Once we've gotten her locked up in your guys' room, want to take a bath with me, too?"  
  
He nodded, scrambling off her bed (with a muffled 'Umpf!') and took her hand, intending to help his disobedient twin get cleaned up. 'What an angel,' Chihiro thought, grabbing an armful of towels and going back to the bathroom door.  
  
By the time Hatoko was cleaned and sitting sullenly in her room, in her bed (the twins still hadn't moved out of their cribs yet - Yuuko and Akio were currently looking for beds for them) Karasuko and Chihiro didn't really need a bath.  
  
They took a shower anyway, and afterwards when Karasuko was all ready for bed, and in his crib (Hatoko was refusing to talk let alone look at her older sister and twin brother) Chihiro sat down and chose a random book.  
  
"Once upon a time," she began dramatically, then paused, reading over the page then the rest of the story. She put it back with a mild sigh, closed the door, clicked off the light, closed the curtains, and turned on two small lamps. She clasped her hands behind her back and looked at her brother and sister, who both looked back at her. Karasuko decided that since this was semi-spooky, she might listen.  
  
"Once upon a time," Chihiro repeated, pacing around the room. "There lived an innocent little ten year old girl. She was the Princess of the World, and one fateful day, the Queen and King decided that they would move to a new castle."  
  
"Nee-chan! You already told this one!" Hatoko whined.  
  
"So?"  
  
"So, the princess meets a boy dragon and they get married happily ever after. The end. Wanna hear scary story!"  
  
"You want to hear a scary story?" Chihiro repeated flatly. Hatoko nodded her head once deftly. Karasuko curled up under his blankets and said softly, "Song, nee-chan."  
  
"You want a song?"  
  
"Song, nee-chan!"  
  
"It hasta be scary song!" Hatoko put in, also settling down grumpily. Chihiro stared at her. She wasn't being raised this way, yet Hatoko had always been her own little pissy self, and Karasuko had always been quiet, shy, obedient, rarely spoke. Exact opposites. How cliché. 'They remind me of Yubaba and Zeniiba every time I look at them,' she thought, sadly falling into the memories of her adventure three years earlier.  
  
"NEE-CHAN!" Hatoko squealed. Chihiro snapped out of her thoughts, and quickly cast about her mind for a song. Anything to make them fall asleep - if there was one thing that worked on both Hatoko and Karasuko it was a soft voice singing a soft song. Yuuko often did this, and tried once or twice to teach her eldest daughter, but Chihiro just wasn't a singer.  
  
"I'm sorry, you two, but I can't sing," she pointed out. When would Yuuko and Akio be back from their stupid meetings? Twelve? One? Great. 'Go to sleep, please,' Chihiro begged them silently. Neither moved except to blink at her. She sighed.  
  
"Tsuki no umi kasumete tobu  
Watashi no taisetsu na shiroi ryuu  
Hayaku hayaku motto hayaku  
Watashi no moto e to," she began hesitantly. "Gin no uroko chi ni mamirete  
Ubawareta namae motomete  
Atedonaku sasurau  
Utsukushii shiroi ryuu  
Itoshii shiroi ryuu  
  
Sen no yoru wo nomi  
Chihiro no mio ni shizume," she paused for a moment, swallowed, then tried her best to imitate Yuuko, singing ever-so-softly. "Sabi no kaze shiofuku tsuchi  
Watashi no takanaru shiroi mune  
Hayaku hayaku motto hayaku  
Yutaka ni afure yo," another pause. She smiled - it was working! "Aoi tategami wa hi ni yakare  
Umerareta kawa wo motomete  
Atedonaku sasurau  
Utsukushii shiroi ryuu  
Itoshii shiroi ryuu  
Kakusareta watashi no  
Wakiitsuru nagare e," not bad for a song she had composed herself. Actually, Chihiro had thought this one up not too long ago - three years, in fact! About a month after her adventure, Yuuko found she would have the twins soon, and the urge to write lyrics just poured out. In fact, she had quite a few of these... lyrics...  
  
"Sen no yoru wo nomi  
Chihiro no mio ni shizume."  
  
She stopped and couldn't halt a triumphant grin from spreading across her face. Ha! So she couldn't sing a couple of babes to sleep, could she? However, as she left the kids' room, opening the curtains and turning off the lights, leaving the door cracked and hallway light on, her smile slid and finally slipped off of her face, and she closed her own door behind her, turning off her lights (except for the small lamp on her desk), closing the curtains to her window, sitting at her desk. She pulled out a handful of notebooks, all filled with drawing of them. Each was special, dedicated to a special someone; the purple one there had pictures of Yubaba and Zeniiba; the pink one had Rin and Kamajii from the first page to the last; the orage one had all of the workers; and the green on with blue and white stripes across it... Chihiro opened it gingerly, then placed her elbows on her desk, bending her forehead into her hands.  
  
She cried.  
  
She always cried. She wanted more than anything to see them - him - again, but she didn't want to risk her family, her life...  
  
"That's quite a name, sounds like a God!"  
  
"Where are my parents?"  
  
"Will we ever see each other again?"  
  
"Okaasan, Otousan, are you sure you're okay?"  
  
"A new baby? You mean, I'm going to be a big sister?"  
  
"Don't name him Karasuko! He'll be teased!"  
  
"Hey kids, wanna hear a story? It's about a different world, and a dragon...."  
  
"Hatoko why are you so bad all of the time?"  
  
"Haku."  
  
"Haku!"  
  
"Kohaku!!"  
  
She listened to her own voice, and theirs as well. His. Why couldn't she just forget? Live in peace? Why did her feelings always come back to taunt her, why did she feel like her emotions were simply being toyed with?  
  
.  
  
The next day was the last day of school. Hallelujah! Backpacks weren't allowed in (wonder why...) so the day wasn't dull, since teachers were either throwing parties, letting the kids talk/read all period, or attempting to teach something interesting that wasn't in the job description without utensils.  
  
After school, Chihiro walked home alone after dropping by the day care to walk Hatoko and Karasuko how with her. Akio was as usual at a job meeting (he always worked all day and late) and Yuuko was almost frantic over her business, which was coming dangerously close to being bankrupt, or something like that. So she would be staying late until it was taken care of.  
  
If they didn't make it to breakfast or dinner, they would find some way to come home on weekends for lunch. Both were thrilled that Chihiro was adapted so quickly (they didn't know about her friend-less-ness or how incredibly low her social status had been at school) and that she put up with her brother and sister so well.  
  
Yuuko still wasn't aware of her missing cushion. That was a sign to show that she was working pretty hard.  
  
After making sure that the kids were (locked in the house) playing in the living room - Karasuko was drawing with an over-sized red crayon and Hatoko was trying to make something by folding different papers together. Chihiro went up to her room and cheerfully dumped her backpack at the bottom of her closet, glad to be burying it. she sat at her desk after closing her door, and took her new notebook, which she had just bought. Taking out a well sharpened pencil, she opened it to the first page, and stared at the white paper.  
  
One could make out the little grains of thin wood there, all compressed together to create a blank sheet of nothingness. Nothing. These pages - all seventy-five of them - were blank and bare, cold, nothing, waiting patiently for somebody to come along and fill them up so that they can be useful and finally live. Until then, they were nothing. They still were nothing. Just... nothing, so that they can be used to show writing. It wasn't the paper that told stories or solved math problems, it was the pen, really. But drawing on them was different. They became the picture, playing into it, being what the picture was.  
  
Chihiro shook her head. She was thinking nonsense.  
  
She began a sketch of Rin, and fifteen minutes later stared down at it. then suddenly, as she turned to the next page, she thought that: three years had passed by now. Three long, agonizing years without them. Without him.  
  
What would Haku look like now? How old would he be? Fourteen? Fifteen? Was his hair the same, or cut short, or long? Was he more tan? Any taller? Had his voice changed any? His personality?  
  
Did he still love her? Think of her at all?  
  
Biting her lip and blinking away tears, Chihiro began a quick sketch. She erased it, though, and made his hair longer. She erased it again and made his hair shorter. She erased it once more and made him taller. She erased that and made him muscular. Erased that and made him lithe, slim. Erased that, threw the notebook down, curled up (knees to chest arms around head) and cried.  
  
What if they hadn't aged at all? did they age in the spirit world? Would that make Chihiro and Haku the same age, or would Chihiro be older? She couldn't bear the thought. Not that it would be her death warrant, but the single thread of thought - that maybe she would grow old and they - he - would stay the same, and then what? As a thirty year old, she wouldn't be able to marry a preteen or teenager.  
  
She stumbled to her bed, grabbing her new notebook, and still sniffing and shaking her face every now and then to stop the tears from wetting the paper, she began to draw again.  
  
Haku liked she remembered him. She ripped the paper out, crumpled it, and threw it.  
  
Then taller. Rip. Crumple. Throw.  
  
With longer hair. Rip! Crumple! There goes another paper.  
  
With shorter hair. Rip, crumple, throw.  
  
More muscles. Rip, crumple, throw.  
  
Thin and fast-looking. Rip, crumple, throw.  
  
Tan. rip  
  
Pale. crumple  
  
Smiling. throw  
  
Frowning. Scribble, rip, crumple, throw.  
  
Then she drew herself, as a ten year old (she had had plenty of practice with this, and a lot of pictures of herself at that age) next to Haku as she remembered him. She turned to the next page.  
  
Taller, with the same hairstyle, smiling. Rip, crumple, throw  
  
The same age, next to her thirteen-year-old self, frowning. Scribble, stab with pencil, growl in anger/shame/sadness, crumple, tear to pieces, throw.  
  
Breaking into somewhat louder sobs, she hit herself repeatedly on the head.  
  
'You're getting hysterical!' she scolded herself. 'stop it, Sen! What kind of brat cries over things as stupid as this?'  
  
She drew him as a Dragon. Turned the page.  
  
The pages were numbered. Page sixty.  
  
As a dragon, older.  
  
She paused there, then wiped her tears away and smiled a little bit. She carefully ripped the paper out and threw it behind her, massaged her temples, sighed.  
  
'Don't cry don't cry don't cry. This is nothing to cry about. Cry over the wars and deaths every day in the world! Don't cry over nonsense crap like this.' She thought harder, and sighed heavily once more, closing her eyes and closing her notebook. She placed it under her pillow, then stood up with it and put it in her desk with all of the others. Right on top. She sniffed a little. 'Thatta girl, Sen! Now we're starting to grow up!' she praised herself silently. As she turned around, she froze, becoming aware of two things.  
  
The first was all of the crumpled papers littering the floor. The second was Karasuko who looked ready to cry himself. He toddled in, and gave Chihiro a hug. She lifted him up, accepting the effort on his side. then she saw Hatoko crouching next to a few papers. She had taken one and smoothed it out as best she could, furrowed her brow, cocked her head.  
  
"Who, nee-chan?" she asked, showing Chihiro the picture Chihiro had drawn of Haku, as she remembered him. She froze again.  
  
"Nobody, Imouto! Give that back, please,"  
  
"I want it!" she complained, clutching the paper to her chest like a new born son. "I like it! pretty! I want it!"  
  
"Please, Hatoko-chan, it's mine, give it back, now, please, don't tell anybody..." shifting Karasuko to her hip, she started slowly toward her little sister.  
  
"NO!" came the shouted reply, and she bolted.  
  
"GET BACK HERE!" Chihiro shouted after her and started after her, stopping at the living room, smirking as her sister realized Chihiro had locked all of the doors, thus, locking her in. she folded up the paper and tucked it down her sock, stomping her foot. Chihiro set Karasuko on the couch, and again started toward Hatoko; arms extended palms up.  
  
"Won't give back unless you tell me who it is!" Hatoko demanded, stomping her foot repeatedly every now and then.  
  
"Somebody I met a long time ago, "Chihiro said. "now give it back, please,"  
  
"Name?"  
  
"Name?"  
  
"His name!"  
  
irritated with her sister now (like always) Chihiro sighed. "it's Nigihiyami Kohaku Nushi! Now give it back!"  
  
"That no name!"  
  
"HAKU, HIS NAME IS HAKU, NOW GIVE THAT PICTURE BACK TO ME RIGHT **NOW** YOUNG LADY!!!"  
  
Karasuko burst into tears as Chihiro tacked Hatoko and they started to wrestle. For a three-year-old, she was immensely strong.  
  
Hearing her brother's cry, and her parent's car driving up (was it truly so late?) she abandoned Hatoko and rushed to her brother, cooing him until he stopped crying, and the key hole clicked, and the door opened.  
  
"What's wrong?" Yuuko asked the moment she saw tear-strained Chihiro and Karasuko.  
  
"Nothing, Okaasan, it's nothing," Chihiro said, praying that Hatoko wouldn't say anything about the picture. "Uh, hey, I'm starving, what's for dinner?"  
  
"... Pork chops," Yuuko said haltingly, suspiciously. Chihiro turned her head and rested her brow against her brother's, not wanting to look her mother in the eye.  
  
"Yuck, Okaasan! I want ice cream!" Hatoko complained, standing up. Apart from mussed up brown hair and flushed skin, she looked basically the same.  
  
Chihiro, no matter how angry or desperate, would never hurt her sister nor brother.  
  
"We'll have ice cream for dessert," Yuuko said, offering a tired smile. "Why don't you and Karasuko go play outside?"  
  
"Okay!" she replied happily. "C'mon onii-chan! Let's play some," her voice took on a malicious tone that NO three year old should have heard let alone use, ".... Hide and Seek." She grabbed her shoes and coat, going outside. She was actually very smart, for a three-year-old. had the intellect of a ten year old, really. Yuuko and Akio often remarked on this.  
  
Chihiro shooed Karasuko out as well, silently mortified that Yuuko would let them out without sending her along as well.  
  
"Chihiro, dear, we need to talk," Yuuko began, sitting now on the cushion- less couch with a tiny sigh. Too much sighing. Chihiro sat gingerly next to her. "what is it?"  
  
"I've been bought out," Yuuko murmured, and then grinned a little. "poor fools, don't know what they've gotten themselves into." She seemed to realize Chihiro was still there. "Uh, um, BUT MY POINT IS that I won't be working this summer, not at first, anyway, so I'll be home to handle the little guys. Isn't that exciting? I figured you might like that."  
  
"Oh, I do! Thank you, Okaasan! My savior!"  
  
Yuuko laughed as Chihiro hugged her.  
  
WHILE THIS WAS GOING ON INSIDE, Karasuko and Hatoko were outside, crouching together.  
  
"Hey, onii-chan?" Hatoko asked softly. "can I tell you a secret?"  
  
"Hai!" Karasuko leaned forward. His sister rarely talked to him civilly.  
  
"I always feel strange, you know? Like I'm not me; like somebody else is inside of me. crazy, huh?" she pulled out the picture, unfolded it, and frowned. "I think that nee-chan likes him lots and lots!" she announced, pointing at the picture, showing it to her twin brother.  
  
"Hai! Hai!" Karasuko agreed. But in truth, he wasn't sure he like this... Haku. He made his sister cry - every night. For as long as Karasuko could remember, he would wake up to his older sister's cries. At first, he had thought them simply dreams, but after finally getting up and crawling to hear for certain, and now this: he knew that this boy made Chihiro cry very much, and he didn't like anybody who made his big sissy cry.  
  
".... And I think we should find him!" Hatoko concluded. "we'll be doing her a favor, and I'LL get to meet him. He looks like he might make a cool baby-sitter, ne?"  
  
"... Hai." Yeah, and make him apologize! No. no, maybe if Chihiro saw him, she would cry even more. Maybe going to find this Haku wasn't such a good idea after all.  
  
But Hatoko had already folded up the picture once more, tucking it in a coat pocket before zipping the light jacket up, and was squinting at the sun.  
  
"Ha ha, c'mon Onii-chan! Let's go! To the forest!" she pointed, then took off at a sprint. She tripped and fell. Shaking her head, her gray eyes turned to her brother. "C'mon!" she said. He blinked his brown eyes, not noticing that his sister's eyes were suddenly not identical to his.  
  
"But," Karasuko murmured, standing up as well. "tell them gone!"  
  
She either didn't hear her twin brother or chose to ignore him. Karasuko chewed his lip. He looked back at the house, then to his sister's retreating back.  
  
"I catch up," he said. Then, louder, practically screaming, "CATCH UP, SISSY!"  
  
she stopped impatiently and held up a hand to show she would wait.  
  
Moving as quickly as he could (which wasn't at all graceful) he went to the house and somehow managed to get the door open.  
  
"Okaasan, nee-chan, going find Haku!" he announced, then closed the door and went after Hatoko. Yuuko, who was in the kitchen, poked her head out into the living room.  
  
"Chihiro, dear, would you please go check on the little guys? I just got a terrible feeling that they're up to something." She stopped when she realized that Chihiro wasn't there. "Chihiro?"  
  
In fact, Chihiro was upstairs, cleaning up her mess, throwing all of the papers away and then tying the plastic bag, also throwing it in the back of her closet, grumbling to herself. She looked out her window and paused a moment to marvel at the setting sun. then she squinted toward the forest and frowned. Was somebody there running toward it? no, two somebody's. Small somebody's...  
  
Chihiro shuddered, her hair rising.  
  
Yuuko poked her head in. "Chihiro, there you are," she said with a sigh. "Can you go check on Hatoko and Karasuko? I think that they may have gotten themselves in trouble and I have the stove on," she stopped as the fire alarm went off. Chihiro roared with laughter as Yuuko shot back to the kitchen, then went downstairs and pulled her shoes on. She didn't take a coat or sweater since she figured she'd simply be telling them to play closer to the house.  
  
However, the twins were nowhere in sight.  
  
"Hello?" she called. Her voice echoed emptily. Then she heard something. Voices, echoing, shouting, laughing. In the direction of the forest. She remembered the figures she had seen before, and it finally clicked.  
  
Hatoko and Karasuko were in the forest. Would they go near the tunnel? The Spirit World? Chihiro felt all of the color drain from her face and neck, then rush back all at once along with reinforcements, leaving the rest of her body tingly and strangely detached.  
  
Slowly, sluggishly, she took off at a walk, then a jog, then an all-out run, three years of track team training coming in handy, as it usually did when anything involved the twins.  
  
"I'm coming, hold on!" she shouted, then stopped talking or shouting, concentrating on getting there.  
  
She cut around down front, sliding with a muffled grunt on the gravel road, catching herself with a hand. She ran down the road that had gotten Akio, Yuuko and her had gotten lost in before.  
  
What Chihiro didn't know was that her brother and sister had taken a shorter way, and were now hesitating, gasping, at the tunnel entrance.  
  
"Go.... Back...." Karasuko gasped, collapsing. Hatoko shook her head. "Nah, we're almost there! Look, see? I bet this is the entrance to Haku'ses house!" but she made no move to go in.  
  
A moment in silence passed.  
  
"So dark," Karasuko whispered, pushing himself up sleepily and looking at his sister. Her almost shoulder length brown hair was pulled into two pigtails, but since her hair was so short, they only made boppy tufts of hair out of the hair bands. Hatoko secretly wanted to grow her hair out past her shoulders and put it in a ponytail with a "magical" purple hair band, like Chihiro did. Karasuko, however, his hair Chihiro said was cute and to never get cut. It was about the same length as Hatoko's now, and like all three-year-olds, it was lights and fluffy. tHe only difference between Karasuko and Hatoko was that Karasuko's eyes were a bit bigger, more innocent, whereas his sister's eyes were more narrow, piercing. They were supposed to be brown, but right now they were grayish hue. She frowned.  
  
"A little bit of dark never hurt anybody," she informed him, digging through a pocket. She pulled out a half-used glow-in-the-dark pencil that read DARE TO KEEP COPS OFF DOUGHNUTS! And gave it to her brother. "Better Karasuko?" she asked, "now let's go!"  
  
She marched into the unending blackness, and Karasuko whimpered.  
  
"Monte!" he cried, hopping from foot to foot. Then he made a sort of sigh/sobbing sound and went after his sister. Once completely in the darkness he clung to her, terrified.  
  
"Relax." Karasuko jumped. When had her voice gotten to deep and commanding? Mean, like a babysitter who couldn't mow a lawn?  
  
Eventually, they entered a room, like an ancient ballroom. Hatoko continued on without even pausing, and Karasuko whimpered, staring around wide-eyed as they came to the exit. They walked up a small path, and Hatoko stopped. Karasuko let go of her.  
  
She turned her brow eyes to him. "Now," she said, back in her regular voice, "was that so hard? I bet his house is somewhere near here! C'mon, I bet we can make it there and back before dark!" she started off again, energy renewed. Karasuko looked after her. He was pooped. With a sigh that only a toddler can make so dramatic, he let his shoulders slump and followed after her.  
  
'The sun is going to set soon,' Chihiro thought, running harder than ever. Her side hurt terribly and she could hardly breathe. She looked at her watch. The sun would probably disappear all together in five minutes at most.  
  
Finally, gasping, she stopped at the tunnel entrance. She stared into the darkness.  
  
"Karasuko-chan?" she gasped weakly. "Hatoko-chan? Come out, now, please!" her throat was dry and raspy. She leaned against the stone gargoyle thing for support, taking deep even breaths. She heard voices.  
  
"Wait, Hatoko-chan!" Karasuko's voice sounded miles and miles away.  
  
"I'm coming! Don't worry don't eat anything!" Chihiro screamed into the darkness and took off at a run again.  
  
She tripped and fell quite a few times, so by the time she was out of the tunnel and ballroom place, her palms and knees were scratched up and a little bloody. She cursed herself; she was still in her school uniform. Thigh-length skirt and short-sleeved shirt with a bow and the little sailor thing from the bow. She shivered, despite the sweaty heat she had worked up from her gasping run. Her side hurt so much now that she was doubled over, gasping, wheezing through a dry throat and pained lungs.  
  
She looked up through the field again, just in time to see two shadows disappear over the rise.  
  
"Come baaaaaaaack!" she screamed at them. This took away what energy and breath she had conserved, and she started after them wearily, gasping, wishing this weren't happening to her. Hatoko rarely ate lunch unless it included ice cream, so she would be hungry. Karasuko was so passive and such a good boy, that he would do whatever she ordered him to.  
  
Meanwhile, Karasuko and Hatoko had just made it across the river, not being able to resist to splash in the little bit of water before starting up the big stairs.  
  
"Food houses," Hatoko said as she finally mounted the last step and looked around.  
  
Karasuko collapsed at her feet, having just come, and moaned something about being tired. Poor guy.  
  
"Come on, Onii-chan! I smell something good! I bet it's Haku's mommy cooking dinner! Maybe we can stay." She paused, stopping to tuck the picture back in her coat pocket from where it had been falling out.  
  
So the two trekked off, and had just barely made it up the second flight of stairs when Chihiro made it halfway to the river.  
  
She paused again, gasping. She was completely doubled over by now, and leaned against the rocks before she stumbled ahead again. So tired, and sweaty. A shiver rippled through her, and she turned to look at the progress of the sun. it was hidden by the many restaurants. But it was getting dangerously close to dark now, and she began to panic.  
  
Karasuko and Hatoko had, by now, found the always-open restaurant.  
  
"I don't think he's here," Hatoko sighed, climbing up onto the counter. She stopped at she realized how dark it was. "The sun set, Karasuko! Drat, I wanted to see it!" she climbed back down, and the two of them both started back out to the middle of the "roadway".  
  
They both screamed shrilly with what they saw, too.  
  
Black shadows were appearing everywhere!  
  
"Ghosts!" Hatoko cried, and took off in one direction. Karasuko sobbed and took off in the other, desperate to get away.  
  
He ran into Chihiro at the stairs.  
  
Crying to the point of collapsing, he held up his arms, wordlessly telling his big sister to take him home.  
  
"Hatoko!" Chihiro screamed, stumbling the way that Karasuko did NOT want to go. "Hatoko! Where are you, Hatoko, come on, Hatokoooooooo!"  
  
She thought she heard a strangled cry in the distance. She darted by a bigger shadow, now crying herself, and danced. She couldn't take Karasuko in farther. She couldn't leave him here. She couldn't send him back the way they had come.  
  
"OKAASAN!" Shouted a little voice, filled with fear. That decided for her.  
  
"I'm coming! Stay where you are, Hatoko-chan, I'm coming I'm coming!" she took off, and found herself climbing the steps madly. She rushed to the bridge and ran smack into someone.  
  
Whoever it was caught her by the wrist and shoulder, and she screamed. Louder, harder, and longer then she had ever screamed before. 


End file.
